Mount Guna hosts rich biodiversity and provides essential ecosystem services. However, its soil quality and productivity are declining due to land use changes and unsustainable management practices. This study aimed to evaluate the physicochemical characteristics of soil under different land uses and soil depths in the Mount Guna Ecological Reserve, Ethiopia. Soil samples were collected from four distinct land uses at five different depths (0–10, 10–20, 20–30, 30–50 and 50–100 cm) across various landscape positions. The results showed significant spatial variation in soil properties among land use types and with soil depth. Both land use type and soil depths had a significant impact ( p < 0.01) on the physicochemical parameters of the soil. Post hoc analysis revealed that forest and protected grassland soils had significantly higher ( p < 0.05) levels of total nitrogen, available phosphorus, organic carbon, exchangeable bases (K, Ca and Mg), and cation exchange capacity compared to grazed grassland and cultivated land use categories. In contrast, as soil depth increased across all land use types, levels of total nitrogen, available phosphorus, cation exchange capacity, and organic carbon decreased. Cultivated land use showed the lowest values of pH, total nitrogen, available phosphorus, cation exchange capacity, organic carbon, and exchangeable bases, while also exhibiting the highest bulk density. Conversely, forest and protected grassland soils contained higher concentrations of nutrients and organic matter. This study highlights the need for integrated soil fertility management, conservation practices and protection of forests and grasslands and informed land use policies to sustain soil ecosystem services and prevent further soil degradation in the Mount Guna Ecological Reserve. By adopting these measures, it is possible to mitigate the decline in soil quality and productivity, ultimately preserving the rich biodiversity and sustaining soil ecosystem services that Mount Guna provides.
Molla et al. (Thu,) studied this question.